


Just Wanted You To Know

by FleaBee



Series: Just Wanted You To Know [1]
Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Pregnancy, Trials
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-09-19 04:51:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9419528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleaBee/pseuds/FleaBee
Summary: If someone took the time to tell Arnold about his father's death, would he show up at the funeral?





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Betaread by StopTalkingAtMe

Arnold Rimmer did one last check of his shoe's for scuff marks before putting his shoes on and checking his appearance and fixing his hair. Satisfied he picked the shoe polish up and put it away in the locker. Lister rolled his eyes at the fact Rimmer would get ready for a shift of fixing vending machines like he was getting ready for a date.

"Second Technician Rimmer, please report to Captain Hollister's office," the voice of console operator Kristine Kochanski said over the speaker system.

"What did you do this time? Paint the captain again?" his subordinate and roommate Lister asked him.

"That was your fault for feeding me Titan mushrooms," Rimmer insisted. "I have no clue why he wants to see me this time."

Lister reminded him, "They were already out of your system. Just admit it, you're a nut case."

"I'll write you up for that, squire, calling a superior officer a nut case," Rimmer snapped, writing in his notebook he always kept in his breast pocket.

He made sure he was presentable before seeing the captain. Maybe his last exam results had been wrong, and he was going to be made an officer. People of his rank generally didn't see the Captain, yet Rimmer had seen Hollister and the previous two captains many times over the past twelve years he'd been working on the Red Dwarf. He was one of the longest serving crewmembers on the ship which was hard to believe considering his rank.

 

"You wanted to see me, Captain." Rimmer saluted his special salute, not one of the boring salutes that everyone else did.

"Rimmer, I don't care what you do in your free-time, however having prostitutes calling the ship looking for you is against the regulations and could block vital messages regarding our mission," Captain Hollister lectured.

"I have done no such thing!" Rimmer was offended that the captain would even think anything like that. Sure, on his planet leave, he had visited the Red Light district on different planets once or twice, but nothing ever happened since he'd chicken out and he most certainly didn't ask any of them to call him back if he did manage to make it to a room.

"Then why do I have someone who looks like the model Janine calling and asking to speak with you?" Hollister enquired.

"Only Janine I know is my sister-in-law. She's a real model, not a prostitute." Rimmer was offended that the captain could possibly think Janine was a hooker.

"You expect me to believe that Janine, the model, the successful model with a clothing range my wife adores, is your sister-in-law." Hollister clearly didn't believe that she was the real deal or that she would be related to someone like Rimmer.

"Yes, sir."

"So you won't mind if you take the call in my office, with myself present. To prove she really is who you say she is."

"Not at all, sir."

Hollister called out to the console officer. "Kochanski, connect Rimmer's call."

A few moments later Janine was on the video screen, the real Janine, his sister-in-law.

Arnold greeted her. "Janine, you look well. I wasn't expecting your call. What do I owe the pleasure?"

"When was the last time you spoke to your mother or brothers?" Janine asked in a to the point tone, not interested in small talk.

"It's been a while since I spoke to anyone." Arnold frowned and turned to Hollister, who was listening in. Technically his mother wasn't meant to contact him at all considering the whole divorce thing when he was still a teenager.

"You wouldn't know that your father passed away last week," Janine informed him, not at all sounding upset at her father-in-law's passing.

"How, when? Why didn't anyone tell me?" Arnold asked. He glanced back at the captain and tried to keep his face blank while inside he was falling apart. Did his family hate him that much they wouldn't even tell him his own father was dead? It didn't feel like this was real, it had to be a dream. Any minute he'd wake up in the medical bay to find this was some weird hallucination.

"Heart attack on Thursday night."

"Not a stroke?" Rimmer asked. If felt like he was watching from the outside as his body went through the motions of answering Janine.

Janine nodded. "Your mother's usual antics were the cause." She didn't need to elaborate; Rimmer knew what his mother was like, and the captain and officers didn't need to know. "Frank has a hard time accepting that your mother wasn't faithful." Rimmer rolled his eyes. Frank was always so oblivious to their parents' ways. "Your mother told the family she'd informed you of your father's passing."

"I haven't had any calls from her," Rimmer confirmed. The last call he had from his mother had been years ago. She usually only sent him letters.

"The funeral is next Saturday, that is the earliest John can get home." Janine continued. "I'm in charge of catering, and hadn't seen an RSVP come back from you, I do hope that you come. Tell me as soon as possible. Arnold, I want my children to meet their uncle. I must be going. The children will be home from school soon."

Arnold didn't say anything else. The call disconnected and he continued staring at the blank screen. His father was dead! His father had died without ever saying that he was proud to have him as a son. All he ever wanted was his father to say 'Arnold, I'm proud of you.' But not once, not once in his whole life had his father said those words to him.

"Rimmer," the captain called out. "Rimmer, Rimmer!"

Rimmer ignored Hollister trying to get his attention. "I need some time alone." Walking out, not waiting for a response to confirm he was dismissed; right now he honestly didn't care.

He couldn't return to his room; he wouldn't be able to deal with Lister right now. He missed the days when he had his room to himself. He made his way to his favourite observation deck, scaring the couple that was using it. He just sat looking at the stars, thinking about the father he hated. The father who hated him back, who he could never be good enough for. Maybe divorcing his parents when he was fourteen had been the wrong thing to do. Maybe if he stayed around, maybe things would be different.

 

"McIntyre, I want you to confirm if Second Technician Arnold Rimmer's father is really dead," Hollister requested. "I don't want him using this as an excuse for his poor work performance if it isn't true."

"Already done sir, Mr Harold Rimmer passed away recently of a heart attack," McIntyre confirmed. Everything Arnold Rimmer said needed to be confirmed as he often elaborated the truth as an excuse to get out of some duty that scared him. "Janine really is his sister-in-law sir, I did a background check a long time ago, his family really is exceptional, well, except for Rimmer himself."

"I believe that Rimmer is from one of the outer rim colonies. Put him on bereavement leave and organise for him to be on the next shuttle back to his home," Hollister ordered. "I don't care if he doesn't want to go; it will get him out of our hair for a few weeks."

"Yes, sir," McIntyre replied.

 

Rimmer didn't even know he had company until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Rimmer, you've been out all night and missed our shift. Did you get dumped by some girl? No, that can't be it, you'd have to get a date first. Did the captain tell you you're no longer allowed to take exams? I mean the only time you have missed a shift is when you've been in the hospital, usually after you failed your exams. I checked the medibay first, the nurses hadn't seen you. I then asked around, and Chen mentioned you interrupted his date last night. I didn't know where else to look so I thought I'd see if you were still here." His roommate prattled on.

"You noticed I was gone," Rimmer said in surprise. Turning to face Lister, looking for any hint on his face that he was lying or about to prank him.

"Well, of course I noticed. You're always in my nose about something," Lister replied. "It's rather quiet in our room without you telling me not to smoke or reciting other rules and regulations to me. It was fun at first, I got worried when you still didn't return. You do end up in the medibay a lot."

"No one ever notices when I am gone. Or if anyone did, they didn't care that I was gone or was grateful that I was gone. No one will miss me when I die."

"Of course someone will miss you, I mean everyone has someone. What about your family, I'm sure they miss you?" Lister ssuggested, sounding concerned.

"Nobody likes me, not even my own family," Rimmer confessed. "I bet the day I die, they will throw a party and celebrate the fact that I'm not there to annoy them anymore. I was a disappointment to my parents, they made that very clear, I couldn't live up to their expectations. I wasn't like John as much as I wanted to be, he was perfect and could do no wrong in my parent's eyes. Did well at school, had lots of girlfriends. Was the youngest person to be accepted into the Space Corp Special Forces. Frank also did really well at school, is now a captain in the Space Corps and married the most perfect woman in the universe. Howard was excellent at sports and always had a girl on each arm, he's in the Space Corp as well, but I'd already left before he was accepted in so I'm not sure what he does. Then there was me who was horrible at school work, failed at sports and only had one real girlfriend who left me for my brother and a few failed dates. My parents didn't love me or like me. I divorced my parents when I was fourteen. I needed to get away from them, I needed breathing room from their disapproving looks. I thought I would go out on my own, make something of myself, and prove them wrong. But that hasn't happened, I still haven't made something for myself. I failed miserably and proved them right."

Rimmer had never told anyone about what his home life was actually like beforehand. He'd brag about his family, but never talked about how they mistreated and ignored him. Absorbed in his own self pity and not registering it was Lister he was talking to, Rimmer didn't notice the concern growing on Lister's face.

"You're not going suicidal on me, are you?" Lister asked with concern. "Killing yourself is not the answer. Maybe you just need a change and do something completely different, find something you are good at. They have people on the ship that you can talk to."

"What's the pont? I've already spoken to the people on the ship who are meant to help and it didn't change anything, made everything worse in some cases. The former psychologist said she couldn't help and referred me to someone else off the ship and refused to see me anymore. The current one has more problems than I have. What can I do? I'm not good at anything? I can't even pass my smegging exams after all these years and all those hours studying. I spend hours thinking I was a fish during my last exam! What type of person does that? I wish I was a fish. Everything would be easier as a fish. I wouldn't commit suicide, didn't even give it a thought. I'm too much of a coward to even try, I like living too much despite the fact I don't have anything worth living for."

"Then what is this about? I've never seen you like this before."

"My father died. He died over a week ago, and my mother and brothers didn't even think to tell me he is dead. I found out from my sister-in-law, that was why I was called up to the captain's office. He didn't believe that she is related to me. My father died and not once did he tell me that he was proud of me. I heard him tell John all the time that he was proud of him, I heard him tell Frank at least once a week. I heard him tell Howard that he was proud of him multiple times. He would boast to other people how proud he was of John and Frank. Not once did he say those words to me, and now he's dead and will never say that he is proud of me, proud to call me his son. I hated him you know, hated that I could never live up his expectations."

"I lost my father when I was six. My gran told me that he'd gone to the same place my goldfish had gone. I thought that she meant to the loo so I would sit in the bathroom talking to him down the toilet. Reading him the cricket and the Zero G football scores," Lister told him with a slight chuckle.

"And your mother?" Rimmer asked.

"She died when I was young, I don't remember her. My parents were not my real parents, I was adopted. Me real parents left me under a pool table in a pub. I always wondered, why didn't they love me? What was so wrong about me that they abandoned me in a pub at only a few months old. I don't even know when my real birthday is. The point I'm trying to make is sometimes it's nothing that you do - they are the problem. I was a baby, what could've I done to cause my biological parents to abandon me? You should stop worrying about doing something to make them love you. Work on loving yourself first and making yourself happy. That's what I'm doing, working at keeping myself happy, working towards a dream that others may think is crazy. I'm going to buy land on Fiji and raise a few animals, get married to someone I love and have a couple of kids. Be a better parent then my biological parents."

The two men sat in silence for a while longer, looking up at the stars, deep in thought about their own families. "Rimmer, come back to the room; have dinner, shower and some sleep. Tomorrows a new day, start living for you and not some smeghead who never appreciated his own kid."

Rimmer nodded and followed Lister back to their shared room.


	2. Two

John opened the line to Io before heading out for an emergency call. He was always nervous when he spoke to his mother. He'd go into a phone call with a clear vision in mind and then somehow she always managed to change his mind and get her own way. He was determined that this time would be different. Instead, he got scolded for putting work before saying goodbye to his father for the last time. Once again, she delayed the funeral even further, insisting that she would see him tomorrow.

The flight out to the emergency call had not taken long by space travel standards, only about six hours from his base to the section of space the ship was located in.

"Wow, I didn't expect it to be so red," the pilot of his craft exclaimed. A good friend of his, Aaron Carter. They'd gone to school together on Io. In front of them was the ship that was emitting the emergency call. A Jupiter Mining Corporation ship, the size of a small moon.

"Smeg," John exclaimed when he looked out the window and saw what ship the emergency call was for. "That's the Red Dwarf. Didn't they say in the briefing there are no survivors?"

"Yeah, shame too. So many people's lives wasted." Aaron sighed. "Don't know how the JMC is going to get out of this one. They are a disaster with how they run that organisation. Do you think anyone from Io was on the ship?"

"My kid brother works on that ship," John replied.

"Arnold, right? I haven't seen him since he was still in primary school. I used to read with him when I was in high school. Maybe he's on the way to your dad's funeral already?" Aaron suggested. "That is where you're supposed to be at the moment."

"I doubt it, Arnold had a falling out with my parents. You're not the only one who hasn't seen him for a long time. He hasn't seen anyone from the family for years. I haven't spoken to him for a few years myself," John replied. "What do I do if he's dead? I always wanted to apologise for how I treated him when we were kids but was never sure about how to do that. Now it may be too late. I need to apologise to him and Howard. I was a terrible older brother, I always ignored both of them because to me they were annoying kids."

"Who doesn't think that about their younger siblings? I think of my younger sisters as annoying kids still and they have kids of their own now. I'm sure your brother doesn't hate you," Aaron told him. "I'm sure he has gone to the funeral, even if he doesn't like your father. It's not like he hates them. What reason would he have to hate them? Your parents are good people."

"Yes, he does hate them, for very good reason," John told him. "I should have left home earlier. I should have taken Howard and Arnold with me and left Io altogether, cut off ties with my parents. They were little kids, no kids should have to go through what they did. I would've made something work. I mean I had a job. I could've supported them somehow. I allowed my parents to break them."

"What are you going on about?" Aaron turned to face John. "Your parents are well off people. Your father's one of the best teachers I ever had. Only bad thing I've ever heard is about the rumoured affairs your mother apparently had. She wouldn't be the first person to have an affair. Why would you need to take your two younger brothers from them?"

"I never told anyone this before, but my parents are abusive," John admitted. "They are the perfect people in public, but when we were at home it was completely different. They told us what they were doing was for our own good, and I believed it for years. Father used to quiz us on astronavigation questions before dinner. If we got them wrong, we wouldn't be allowed to eat. One mouthful for each correct answer. Arnold almost died of malnutrition more than once. Howard got sick a couple of times, but never as ill as Arnold got. Arnold was so traumatised by the experience that he couldn't even answer questions on tests at school. Yet he could memorise complete textbooks, though usually about facts that our parents deemed irrelevant. Not even I can do that. Arnold struggled with schoolwork because they refused to let him study what he was actually good at. Howard was passing everything but that wasn't good enough for them either."

Aaron looked at him with horror as John spilt more family secrets. About how his mother's affairs were true and more frequent then rumoured, how Arnold was actually his Uncle Frank's son or at least that's what he assumed. How he, Frank and Howard had been born artificially, and Arnold had been the only one Mother had given birth to.

"Mother used to complain that Arnold wrecked her body," John told him. "Having an affair with my uncle was one thing, but she had affairs with everyone and talked about it with Father all the time at the dinner table like it was normal to sleep around."

Aaron was sick by the end. He thought he was over the worst of it.

"Father was horrible with his treatment. Called it training for when we were in the Corps. Told us that we needed to be able to withstand enemies if we were ever caught. Placed us in dark rooms by ourselves, anything to break us. Arnold couldn't sleep in the dark after that. Howard is claustrophobic, Frank has a phobia of spiders and snakes. I'm scared of all those things. I cannot stand the dark or small spaces or bugs." John shuddered. He felt uneasy being in his small ship and looking into the reaches of the darkness of space.

"I still cannot get through to the ship's computer," Aaron told him, pulling John out of his depressing childhood.

"Wait a moment," John replied, dialling in a number with the ship's phone.

"Aren't we a little bit far out for phone calls? Shortwave only," Carter pointed out.

"My brother's room number," John said. "I should still be able to get through since we are close to the ship."

"Great idea, who's going to answer?"

"Maybe the ship's computer will respond," John replied with a shrug.

They didn't even have to wait for the phone to ring before they got an answer. "I am Holly, computer to the Red Dwarf. The person you are trying to call is currently not on the ship," the ship's computer said.

"Thank God." John sighed, relief flooding through his body.

"Are you trying to get through to Arnold Rimmer?" Holly asked.

"I was actually trying to get through to you," John told him. "We can't get you on the radio."

"Oh, sorry about that, the antenna was brought in for maintenance just before the accident," the computer replied.

"Arnold, did he really leave the ship?" John asked him.

"Yes, the captain found out that your father died and forced Arnold to take bereavement leave," the computer told them.

John couldn't believe his brother had left the ship, even if it had been forced.

"I believe White Giant was still in range when the leak happened," Holly added.

John hoped the computer was wrong, but they had not heard of any smaller craft being affected. It also seemed like the radiation was contained to the inside of the ship.

"We need to start emergency procedures and get copies of your black box and all personal records," Aaron told the computer. "You need to move to an exclusion zone just outside the galaxy after these records are transferred during the duration of the enquiry. Once the investigation is completed you will be given further orders. The most likely of these orders is you will be told to fly as far away from the galaxy as possible."

"I have one crew member who is still alive," Holly informed them. "Dave Lister, he was caught smuggling a cat on board. Currently in stasis."

"Understood," Aaron replied. "Is it possible to safely remove him from stasis without putting anyone else at risk?"

"I'm afraid not," Holly told them. "The radiation level is so high that even opening the doors to allow a retrieval team in will contaminate this sector of space. Then it will be brown trousers time for anyone that comes near this area."

"Understood. Beginning the transfer of data," Aaron replied.

John was working on autopilot as he assisted Aaron in the data transfer. Arnold had some terrible luck, but he also had very good luck that involved him surviving incidents that should've killed him. He would not relax until he saw his brother in person. He had to make it up to Arnold for how he treated him as a child. Be a better brother to him.

All the data had been recovered and Red Dwarf was flying to the exclusion zone when the radio crackled to life with a message from another member of the team.

"We've found the JMC Red Dwarf passenger transport vessel White Giant. They've been exposed to the radiation. Red Dwarf crew only." The voice crackled over the radio. "Three crew alive, seven deceased. The three remaining crew don't have much longer."

"Oh smeg, I'm sorry, John," Aaron said when they realised the transport ship had been caught in the radiation leak. The JMC vessel was not up to the Space Corps standard like the sleek ship he and Aaron were in. ""

John was in shock. He'd built up his hope that Arnold had survived. There was no helping him even if he was one of the survivors.

"Understood," Aaron replied when John said nothing. "The ship's computer has made a connection with the transport vessel. The logs from White Giant have been corrupted both ships are in the exclusion zone, White Giant will be docked with Red Dwarf."

John had never been in such a rush to get back to Io in his life. He had to get home. Maybe, just maybe, Arnold had been on a different transport vessel.

 

John didn't even bother reporting back to base. Aaron even told him to go and that he'd handle their boss. John started heading directly for home, taking the fastest shuttles back to Io, which would still have him late for his father's funeral the next day. He tried not to think as he travelled home. He also tried not to build up hope. Arnold was actually going to attend his father's funeral but managed to get caught in the disaster anyway.

He rushed into the hall, taking note of faces. Arnold had still been a teenager when he'd seen his youngest brother last. He didn't even know what he looked like these days. What type of person didn't know what their own brother looked like? He walked to his mother's side. Frank and Janine both smiled in greeting, their children excited to see him. They'd changed a lot since he'd seen the children last. He caught a glimpse of Howard at the back with his wife and kid. He hadn't seen their child in person before now. He'd missed so much while he'd been working away from home. Everyone had grown up and moved on without him.

"Do you know if Arnold is here?" John asked his family without even greeting them.

"I haven't seen him," Frank said, looking around the room.

"I hope he doesn't turn up. All he knows how to do is cause scenes." Their mother huffed.

"You may get your wish," John exclaimed, barely holding his emotions together. "You may never see him again."

"What are you talking about?" Mother asked.

"If he's here, it's very important that I talk to him before we start Father's funeral."

"What is so important that you need to talk to your brother now? It will have to wait, sit down," Mother scolded.

"No," John replied, actually standing up to his mother for once. He then walked past her and to the microphone. "Sorry to interrupt, before we start, I need to know if Arnold is here," John asked, scanning the faces for his youngest brother.


	3. Three

Rimmer looked out of the shuttle window at the Red Dwarf. It felt like he was leaving for his doom and that he'd never see the place he considered home again. It seemed like he was heading for his own funeral and not his father's. It would be the first time he had seen his family in many years and it wasn't exactly something he was looking forward to. He had a love-hate relationship with his family. He did everything for them to love him and they hated him anyway, which in turn ended with him hating them back over time, while still trying to make them love him.

He turned to the woman sitting next to him, unable to figure out why she was with him. She hated him, and he didn't like her. He had to spend hours listening to Lister tell him about how wonderful she was. He'd already been jealous of her before Lister started talking about her all the time. She had the job that he wanted and had scored perfect marks, going straight into an officer's role from the academy she'd attended six or seven years earlier and had steadily worked her way higher up the ranks until she was working in the drive room itself with the first officers.

"Why are you with me?" Rimmer asked. He hadn't been game to ask while still on the ship, afraid that if he did the captain would send someone worse.

"It's not like I wanted to be here," the woman snapped. The feeling was mutual; she didn't want to be with him either. "If Captain Hollister didn't order me to accompany you, I wouldn't be here."

"I'm not a child, Officer Kochanski." He crossed his arms and glared at the woman who outranked him. "I am capable of travelling by myself." Normally he wouldn't dare speaking out of turn to an officer.

"The captain doesn't exactly think you're mentally stable, especially after you painted him a couple of weeks ago."

"He was wearing a chicken costume, I figured I was still hallucinating after Lister fed me Titan mushrooms, especially after what I'd seen earlier that day," Rimmer defended himself. He'd seen multiple version of himself, Lister and Officer Kochanski earlier that day. He'd assumed Hollister was just a continuation of that hallucination.

Kochanski raised an eyebrow. "That is not the only incident, Rimmer. Look, I won't be with you the whole time. I'll make sure that you get to your family home. I will then spend a few days enjoying this unexpected planet leave to go shopping and catch the next shuttle back to the Red Dwarf at the end of the week. Io's a lovely settlement. I used to come here for holidays with my family. You're lucky you got to grow up here."

Rimmer scoffed. It was a pleasant moon if you didn't have his family. "So Captain Hollister's not sending you to keep me guard and make sure I return."

"You and I both know Captain Hollister would prefer it if you never returned. This is to make sure you don't do anything stupid that represents the JMC in a poor light while we're still on company time."

Rimmer just sighed. It was true that no one would miss him if he died. He had no one. No one on the ship and no one at home. If he disappeared no one would notice, and if they did notice they wouldn't care. Lister had been kind to him the past couple of days, but that didn't make up for the months of pranks and insubordination from the other man. He was probably faking being nice to get rid of him sooner.

 

Rimmer gulped as he stood in front of the funeral home. Kochanski had escorted him to the family estate, which was empty. He was running late for the funeral and had assumed he'd missed it. He dropped his bags in his old room and then caught a taxi to the venue. He was so nervous and was starting to think that he would pass out, it took a lot of effort to walk into the parlour and not just get on the next shuttle back to the Red Dwarf.

He walked in and took a seat at the back. Everyone was milling around and talking. The actual service hadn't started yet despite the fact that he'd been late. Glancing around, he caught sight of Mother, Frank and Janine, and Howard with a woman and three children he didn't know. He couldn't see John anywhere. His Uncle Frank's family were in the row behind his mother with Janine's parents. He saw many people that he knew, distant relatives, past employees of the family, teachers from the school his father taught at, family friends, including a few he knew for a fact his mother had slept with. There were also many people that he didn't know.

He watched his family as his mother scolded Frank. Probably because his children were getting fussy. He wished so much to be able to sit with them and be included as part of the family. He didn't belong even with his own family. His mother would tell him to leave if she knew he was here, or at the very least pretend in front of everyone else that he was a wanted member of the family before sending him away. Why couldn't he find somewhere he belonged? Why was he an outcast even in his own family?

A woman he didn't know who was sitting with Howard picked up a crying child and moved to the back row, his row. He hoped that she would ignore him, but sadly she was in a chatty mood.

"Friend or family?" the woman asked.

"Family," Rimmer replied.

"Same. I don't believe we've met before. You must be one of the distant cousins. I'm Karen, Henry was my father-in-law, so sad what happened to him. He was still young. This is my daughter Cassie." She introduced the crying child.

"Arnold," he replied, not elaborating on how he was related. She didn't react like she recognised his name at all. Rimmer felt insulted that Howard had got married without even telling him. That his sister-in-law didn't even know he existed, that he didn't know she existed before today.

His father had been a mess after his attempted suicide and several strokes; his death itself wasn't unexpected. Having a heart attack, however, had been unexpected.

"I wish they would start already. Cassie is due for a sleep and doesn't like all these strangers," Karen complained. "All because John hasn't shown up yet, the funeral was already delayed because of him, he didn't even help at all, leaving everything up to his poor mother, my Howie, Frank, Janine and I."

He wanted to tell the woman to take her crying kid outside until the service started so she didn't disturb everyone.

"I highly doubt that she would've been that upset about his passing," Rimmer replied, looking in his mother's direction. He could tell she was faking being upset. He'd seen her upset enough times to know when his mother was pretending.

"How could you say that? Elaine just lost her husband. She is devastated," Karen shrieked at him. Several people looked his way. Arnold gave his second cousin a short wave, his cousin waved back, and everyone went back to their previous conversations when they realised who he was. No one coming over to talk to him, ignoring him like they always did. "You obviously don't know the family that well at all if you could say that."

"You're the one that doesn't know the family. I know them better than I would like. They didn't love each other. It was a marriage of convenience. If they did love each other, she wouldn't sleep around and he wasn't exactly faithful either." His father's affairs weren't common knowledge or as frequent as his mother's, but he did have a few over the years.

"How dare you! I've been married into the family for eight years and have known them even longer," Karen shouted. She picked up her crying baby and stalked off, insulted.

Rimmer was somewhat happy he could brood on his own again. Sadly that wasn't to be the case for long. A couple around his father's age arrived late and sat next to him.

"We thought we'd missed it, have they started yet?" the wife asked.

"The family is waiting for John to turn up before they start," Rimmer replied. Why was everyone in a chatty mood today? He just wanted to be left alone to brood.

"Karen is staring daggers at you, what did you do?" The woman's husband chuckled.

"Oh, I just mentioned that her mother-in-law doesn't miss her father-in-law because she has a string of men on the side. She took offence," Rimmer replied.

"Ah yes, Elaine's ways aren't spoken about even if we know what she is like. I tried telling Karen, but she wouldn't listen," the woman agreed.

Arnold was talking happily with the older couple. He was surprised to actually get along with them and that they agreed with several of the things he'd said.

"I don't remember if I know you or not. Have you known the family long?" Rimmer asked.

"We're Karen's parents, Keith and Sandra Bell." Keith held out his hand which Arnold shook. "Known the family for years, longer than Karen's been with Howard. We actually weren't happy with her marrying into the family; they keep far too many secrets."

"Arnold Rimmer. I don't blame you for not liking them. I don't like them either, I left the family as soon as I could. I hated him."

"If you hated him, why turn up to his funeral?" Sandra asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Make sure he is actually dead. Not like the time he tried to commit suicide. Janine asked me to come, wants me to meet her kids," Rimmer replied.

"So he really did try to commit suicide? Elaine told me he had surgery because of a stroke," Karen replied.

Rimmer nodded. "I was in the room at the time Father shot himself. Gave me a lecture about how you could survive anything with a good crew cut. Mother told everyone the surgery was the result of a stroke since he'd already had two or three by that point." Karen's parents didn't seem to be surprised by his identity.

Rimmer's conversation was interrupted when John came rushing in. His oldest brother walked to his mother and was talking to her, Frank and Janine in a hushed tone. Howard was now at the back with Karen on the other side of the hall, trying to keep her calm. Karen was either trying to get her parents to come over to her or indicating that Arnold should go away. Howard hadn't noticed him. After a hushed discussion, John stood at the microphone.

"Sorry to interrupt. Before we start, I need to know if Arnold is here," John announced. "Not you, Mr. Benet," John said to the man that stood up. "Arnold Rimmer. Not you either, Uncle Arn," John said to their great uncle, who was near the front. He was close in age to Rimmer's father and Uncle Frank.

"Do they mean you?" Sandra asked him in a hushed tone.

Rimmer nodded. He hated being singled out. Was his family going to kick him out of the service? Rimmer stood up slowly, shaking nervously, having no clue what this was about. May as well get it over and done with. Maybe they were going to humiliate him in front of everyone and actually kick him out.

"Oh thank goodness," John said, running off the stage to the back of the hall. He pulled Arnold into a hug. "I need to talk to you outside," John told him in a quiet voice. Janine and Frank were both making their way to the back, their children staying with her parents.

"We'll be starting shortly," he heard his mother saying. "Just a small family emergency we need to sort out first."

His mother walked out with Howard and Karen, who was still holding baby Cassie.

 

"You don't want me here do you," Arnold assumed. He still wasn't sure why John asked for him and then hugged him. It had to be a trick, to make him feel loved and missed, and then kick him out. Giving him false hope that they actually did care about him.

Mother had that look of disapproval and for once it was aimed at John instead of Rimmer. Mother demanded, "John, what is this about? Did you really need to make that type of display? Whatever you need to say to your brother, couldn't it wait till after the service?"

John still hadn't let go of Arnold. It was like he was trying to stop him from running away which Rimmer wanted to do.

"Brother?" Karen asked in confusion, looking between Arnold and his brothers, taking in the family resemblance.

"I for one am glad you could make it, Arnold," Janine greeted him. She didn't sound like she actually meant it and was just being polite.

"Thank you, Janine. You are looking even better in person then you looked over the video link," Rimmer replied.

"What, you talked to him? When?" Frank asked his wife.

"I had to make sure someone told him that his father is dead. It turned out that you hadn't told him, Mother." Janine turned to her mother in law.

"I did tell him, I sent him a letter," his mother replied.

"A letter," Arnold exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to get mail? Christmas will have come and gone before I get my next lot of mail."

"You sent him a letter!" John and Frank said together.

"I assumed you called him," Frank continued. Howard nodded in agreement.

"What is going on? Who is he?" Karen yelled.

A few people were loitering in the doorway. They could hear excited whispering about Arnold and wondering where he had been from those who did know him or knew of him.

"The black sheep of the family," Rimmer replied.

"You're not the... well, I guess you are, aren't you," Howard responded, sending sheepish looks towards his wife.

"Howard," Karen said in a firm voice.

"Arnold is our brother," John replied. "Our youngest brother."

"Then how come I've never heard of him?" Karen asked.

"To be fair, I've never heard of you either," Rimmer noted.

There was silence from the Rimmer family.

"Well?" Karen demanded.

"It's a really long story," Howard told his wife.

"Short version. Long version after the funeral," Karen insisted.

"Short version, they hated me, I didn't fit in so I left," Rimmer explained. That was the shortest version possible. The full version really was long.

"Howard," Karen glared at her husband. "Why did you never mention another brother to me?"

"Well, you see Arnold got himself legally emancipated when he was only fourteen. It really upset Mother and Father that he left the family on his own accord," Howard told her.

"Not to mention that the courts agreed and he won the case," John added. "Arnold's legal team was pushing for child abuse charges. He probably would've won too if he wasn't just happy with leaving." John glared at his mother who was looking ill. She pressed her lips together, wishing her children would shut up, especially since they were in public.

"Because of how much it upset Mother and Father we stopped talking about him, and it became such a habit that I never even gave him a thought," Howard admitted.

"Mother and Father didn't want anyone to know that something was wrong and start questioning why Arnold won the case in the first place," Frank told her. "Mother would cry anytime anyone would mention him."

"What are we all doing out here, causing a scene? Everyone will be wondering what is going on. You know how much Mother hates to cause scenes," Rimmer reminded his family.

"Arnold," John said to him in a stern voice. Rimmer turned and looked at his brother, scared about what he was going to say. He didn't like that look and it gave him the feeling his whole life was going to get turned upside down, inside out and chewed up and spat out like one of Lister's toe nails. "Yesterday afternoon the mining ship belonging to the Jupiter Mining Corporation known as the Red Dwarf suffered a radiation leak. There was only one survivor, who is in stasis. The radiation is so high that no one can get him out. Everyone else who was on board at the time is dead."

"Everyone that I know and have worked with for the past fifteen years is dead," Rimmer said slowly. "Except for Miss Kochanski who is on planet leave." He didn't mention that Officer Kochanski was only off the ship because she was escorting him. "What about Lister, is he still alive? It was only yesterday morning that I saw them putting him in stasis for smuggling a cat, just before I left to come to Father's funeral." He'd left the ship yesterday around lunch time. He'd missed dying with the rest of the crew by mere hours.

"Dave Lister survived, not that it will do him any good. By the time it is safe enough to release him from stasis, everyone her knew will be long dead. John confirmed.

" Everyone else is really dead?" Rimmer asked. John sighed and nodded before Rimmer passed out.

 

His mother was crying and holding him when he woke up. John was holding his hand, Frank was holding Janine's shoulder, and Howard was having a fight with Karen. He could hear hushed whispers from the doorway.

"Oh, my baby, I almost lost you. You were always my favourite. You needed me more than your brothers, made me feel like a real mother," his mother told him through sobs. She was patting his hair which she hadn't done since he was a small child. He wasn't sure he believed what she was saying.

"Sorry to dump this on you now, Arnie. I thought it was best you hear it from me, it's why I was late today. Word is already starting to spread about what happened," John told him in a quiet voice.

"It's real, I didn't dream it?" Arnold asked in a heartbroken voice.

John nodded. "I saw the video footage myself."

"We've held everyone up long enough. We'll get your father's funeral out the way and then talk," Mrs Rimmer told her children.

 

Arnold sat between John and Janine during the service. They insisted that he was family and should sit up the front. In a daze, he listened as his mother, John, Frank, Uncle Frank and other close family and friends got up and spoke about the man he called Father. Howard didn't speak and Arnold was told not to talk, not that he could even if he wanted to. He was still in shock from finding out everyone he knew was now dead.

"Arnold, ever heard the saying if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?" John said to him.

"Of course," Rimmer whispered.

"Can you think of anything nice to say about Father?" John whispered.

Rimmer's silence was all they needed to hear to know that he couldn't.

Arnold was surprised that the slideshow had pictures and family portraits with himself. There was even one with just him and his father at the piano that he'd never seen before. His father was smiling and even looked proud. He seemed to be three in that picture, before his parents learnt he couldn't read music and could only play by ear.

 

Before they knew it, the funeral was over. People came up, wishing the family all the best. The ones that knew Arnold were asking what he'd been up to since he wasn't around anymore.

"I work for the Jupiter Mining Corporation," Rimmer replied. "Have done for the past fifteen years." He never elaborated what ship, department or rank or duties he performed. He didn't need sympathy if they knew about the accident already. He'd already heard a couple talking about it, working out who from Io were on the ship. It was mostly people from the families who worked for families like his own. Or those who could not get into the Space Corps like himself but still wanted to be in space.

 

He answered his phone just as his mother was saying her last goodbyes to the few remaining relatives.

"Rimmer, have you heard?" Kochanski asked in a panic. "About the Red Dwarf."

"Yes, I've heard," he replied, relieved to be talking to someone from the ship, even if it was the snooty console officer.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked. "I'm planning to catch a shuttle home after the enquiry has finished. Time to change jobs I think. If I didn't go with you, I'd be dead. Everyone is dead."

"Not everyone. My brother John said it didn't affect the stasis chambers. Lister is still alive," Rimmer told her.

"You can't tell anyone that," John scolded him, snatching his phone. "It is meant to be a secret."

"She'd guess that he is still alive. Officer Kochanski is from the Red Dwarf, she knows Lister is in stasis," Rimmer replied.

"Officer Kochanski?" John said into the phone.

"Yes. Who's this?"

"I'm Commander John Rimmer from the special forces of the Space Corps. You must understand that the fact that David Lister is still alive is to be kept secret."

"I'm not allowed to talk about what goes on aboard the Red Dwarf outside of JMC staff," Kristine replied. "I wouldn't tell anyone."

John handed the phone back to Rimmer, but he wasn't actually sure what to say. He just listened as she reminisced about her friends. She needed to talk to someone who would understand, and he was that person for the first time in his life. He didn't have any friends on the ship, but he'd lost everyone as well.

 

It felt awkward being in the family home again. His room was also exactly as he left it. A child's room, not his. Everything that he considered his was in his room aboard Red Dwarf. He could not go back there without dying of radiation exposure. All his items had been exposed to radiation and even if the scutters survived the radiation leak and could get his stuff out the ship, he still wouldn't be able to go near it for a few hundred years. He had nothing and didn't want to live with his mother, Howard, Karen and their daughter Cassie in the old family home. He didn't want to live with Frank, Janine and their family either because he felt like he was imposing, plus Frank knew how he felt about Janine.

"You can live with me," John offered. "I have a little house on Calypso. I'm not there very often, being in the special forces and all. Plus it would deter squatters, and I know you'd take care of the place, you're tidier than both Howard, Frank and me."

"I don't need your charity," Rimmer pouted. "I can afford to buy my own house if I wanted to."

"It can even be until you decided what you want to do. No point in buying a house when you don't know what you're going to do yet. You still have to attend the investigation meetings with Officer Kochanski about the Red Dwarf disaster."

"Don't remind me." Rimmer sighed.

Sandra, Karen's mother, walked over to him.

"Arnold, I've just heard about your workplace," Sandra said to him with sympathy. "I'm sorry to hear about your friends."

Rimmer nodded. He didn't want to correct her and tell her that he didn't have any friends. How could he explain that he worked in the same location for just under fifteen years and had nobody? Maybe this was the new start he needed; he had become stagnant in a dead-end career. It was obvious to anyone who knew him that he wasn't going anywhere. Sandra was lovely and meant what she said.


	4. Four

John had been required to attend the hearing, being a first responder to the accident. Several of his unit were already waiting when he arrived with his younger brother. John walked over to his friends expecting Arnold to follow, but instead his brother walked over to the other survivor Kristine Kochanski.

He watched the awkward conversation between the pair. Arnold was very socially stunted and kept putting his foot in his mouth. He saw a woman who was obviously pregnant join the group. The woman hugged first Kristine and then Arnold before she started crying. Her pregnancy was obviously a surprise to both Kristine and Arnold. Kristine was congratulating her. Arnold had begun to look like a ghost. The young woman nodded to Arnold, and he'd gone crashing to the floor. After all these years apart and probably helped by the fact Arnold had passed out at their father's funeral, he'd recognised the signs and was already across the room and by his brother's side as he hit the floor.

"Rimmer, should I call for a doctor?" one of his friends asked.

"He should be fine in a moment. Sorry, he's always been a fainter," John apologised to the two women.

"We know," the woman he assumed was Kochanski replied. She had the same distinct accent as the woman he spoke to on the phone.

"He looks a lot like you, he your kid?" his friend Jacob asked.

"Kid brother," John replied.

"Just how many brothers do you have?"

"Three younger brothers," John said. He noticed Arnold was coming to. "Arnie J, how are you feeling?"

"I..." he managed to get out, before glancing at the pregnant woman and fainting again.

"I should go," the pregnant woman told them, racing off before John could reply.

"I'm going to make sure she's okay. Can you tell Rimmer that I'm with her? I forgot to introduce myself, Kristine Kochanski," the other woman said.

"John Rimmer, I'll let Arnold know," John told her, before looking down at his brother.

 

Rimmer followed his brother. He was glad that John was there with him but terrified at the same time because he knew that the inquest was probably going to bring up some of the questionable things that he'd done recently. He felt uneasy as he saw John walking to his team and friends in the Space Corps who had been first responders to the accident. He spotted Kristine Kochanski standing by herself.

"Ma'am," he greeted her.

"How are you holding up?" she asked him.

"I wasn't enjoying being in my childhood home, I'm glad to be off Io," Rimmer told her.

He saw another woman walking towards them, felt panicked for several moments and then relieved when he realised that the other woman was Yvonne McGruder. Yvonne was the only other person on the ship beside Lister that he wanted to survive. He had a crush on her and had been too nervous to contact her again after their disastrous date. He wanted to but couldn't work out how to talk without sound desperate or creepy.

His eyes were immediately drawn to her stomach. He hadn't seen her on the ship for a couple of months and thought that she'd just been avoiding him. Here she was pregnant. He went into panic, his brain shutting down as she walked over to them. He kept trying to work out if it was his. It was a possibility. Or maybe it was that Oliver or Norman person she had mistaken him for.

"Miss McGruder," he managed to get out.

"Oh my God, you survived." McGruder hugged him, and he had no idea what to do. She was crying and all emotional. He'd never known her to be emotional but guessed that was what the pregnancy hormones were doing to her, and he didn't do well with his own emotions let alone someone else's. "I thought I was the only one," McGruder cried. "I didn't want to come to the enquiry, but they told me I needed to come."

McGruder let go of Rimmer.

"I know what you mean," Kristine replied. "I just want to work out what I am going to do next. I mean everything I own is on the Red Dwarf. That is seven years of my life. I've worked there since I got out of university."

"Fifteen years for me, I also started straight out of university," Rimmer told them. "The only thing I own now is a car. Everything else was on the Red Dwarf."

"I was only there for four years," Yvonne replied. "I've been trying to work out for months if I would come back or not after the baby is born." Her hands went to her stomach. "Guess I have my answer. Now it's a case of what do I want to do instead. If I weren't pregnant, I wouldn't be alive."

"I didn't know you were pregnant. I didn't even hear rumours through the gossip vine," Kristine exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I didn't know how to tell anyone when I hadn't told the father first," Yvonne admitted. Her eyes flickered to Rimmer's for a moment before she looked down at her feet. "I sort of ran away from everything and went back home to my parents. Dad's here with me. My parents are thrilled, they didn't think they'd ever become grandparents." She pointed to a man in the crowd who was talking with a few of the older men from the Space Corps.

Rimmer felt faint looking at her father. He looked like he could take out everyone in the courtroom by himself with his bare fists, including all the Space Corps men. No wonder McGruder was the boxing champ on the ship; she probably trained with her father.

"Am I the father?" Rimmer managed to force himself to say. He couldn't believe that he had enough courage to ask her. Kristine looked between them, shocked. She'd heard the rumours that Rimmer and McGruder had been together, but that was all she thought they were. She thought that someone else had to be the father. After all, Rimmer had just been a one-night stand and a bad one if rumours were to be believed. According to the rumours, he'd started crying and hyperventilating in the middle of sex.

"Sorry, I didn't tell you. I tried." Yvonne looked ashamed.

Rimmer nodded, feeling his vision going black. He tried to open up his mouth to tell her that he understood. After all who would want him as the father of their child. No words came out.

 

"Arnie? Are you with me now?" he heard his brother asking him. He looked around, finding himself on the floor. Kristine and Yvonne were both gone.

He stood up slowly, looking around the room. He had to talk to her. Otherwise, she would think that he didn't want the baby or that he didn't believe her. He was still in a little bit of shock at the moment. He was going to be a father! He could barely look after himself: how could he be a father? He had the worst role model possible and didn't know what he was going to do. He just knew that he wanted to be involved in the child's life and do a better job than his own father. Tell the kid that he was proud of them and that he loved them no matter what. That was all he wanted from his own father, and he was going to make sure that he gave his child that.

"Where did she go?" Rimmer asked, looking around frantically.

"Kochanski?" John asked him.

"McGruder," Rimmer replied. "I need to apologise, I didn't mean to faint. I was just really surprised. Oh smeg, she's going to hate me."

"McGruder, is she the pregnant woman?" John asked.

Rimmer looked green at the mention of McGruder being pregnant.

"I don't think I can do this, there's too much going on." Arnold was close to hysteria.

John helped him walk to a seat. John glared at his friends who were laughing at Arnold's fainting. In the past, he'd been embarrassed whenever Arnold fainted in public. Pretended that he didn't know him. He was aware that Arnold couldn't help it. He'd seen it in other men and woman over the years, and it was only then he understood that it was something his brother couldn't control.

John pulled a water bottle out of his bag. He'd thought that he was going to have to deal with Arnold fainting today; he'd just assumed that it would be when he was called up to the stand to answer questions.

"I don't need that." Arnold pushed the drink away. "I need to find her."

"Kochanski's with her at the moment. She'll be back," John told him.

Arnold started to hyperventilate.

"Arnie J, you need to stay calm." John kept his voice low, trying to calm Arnold. "Deep breaths. This isn't about the enquiry is it?"

Arnold shook his head no.

"The baby, it's mine," Rimmer told his brother. "I didn't know. I didn't know she'd even left the ship. I was sort of avoiding her. She must think I was avoiding her because I hate her, but I was just nervous. It was a disaster, we weren't even together longer than twelve minutes before I freaked out. What is wrong with me? Why can't I do anything right? I wish I died with everyone else on the ship. Why should someone like me live? I'm hopeless, I can't do anything right. Someone else should've survived who is actually making something of their life. I'm probably going to stuff up that kid's life as well. It's bad enough I smegged up my own life, but to be responsible for someone else's as well. What happens if she doesn't want me involved? I mean she didn't even tell me."

Of all the responses John was expecting, that had not been it.

"I'm glad you didn't die, I know I've been a horrible older brother. I should have been there for you more and it's something I swore I would change when I responded to the accident and discovered you weren't on the ship. I know you'll do the right thing. You're brave, Arnold, braver than I am."

"How? I'm the biggest coward I know."

"You left. I wish I was brave enough to leave."

"I may have left, but I didn't escape. I should have cut off all ties with Mother and Father, but I couldn't. I kept hoping that I would be able to make them love me. Even with him dead I still don't think I've escaped. I only came to make sure he was actually dead."

"I only came to make a good impression for those outside of the family. Playing the good model son despite the fact I hated him. I hate her as well. I'm not sure which one was worse. Yet here I am still playing happy families with parents I despise. Whatever happens, make sure you don't force the kid to grow up the way you want. Let them be their own person, within reason of course," John told him. "That's what I decided to do if I ever have kids, not that I plan on ever having any."

"I already planned on that," Arnold nodded. "I'm going to find her before this disaster starts."

"Will you be alright by yourself?" John asked.

"I'm sure you'll be there if I faint again," Arnold replied. "That is the worst that can happen, I'll be fine. You know Kochanski was sent with me to make sure I got here in one piece, in case I had some type of breakdown. I know that she'll also be there as well if something happens."

John nodded, watching his kid brother go off. He was so much like Frank. Frank had freaked out every single time Janine was pregnant, thinking he would be a horrible father because their own father had been a terrible parent. Janine kept him in check most of the time, making sure he didn't accidently abuse the kids with something he thought was normal due to their upbringing. He sighed. He knew that Arnold's breakdowns related to what their father and mother did to them while they were growing up. In reality, all four of them should've ended up like Arnold. It was amazing that they'd turned out to be as well adjusted as they were, considering.

 

Kristine was sitting with her arm around Yvonne. They'd never had much to do with one another. They hung around with different social groups. Yvonne was generally surrounded by men, being the tomboy that she was. Kristine wasn't the girliest girl, but she did love her shopping and dancing. She'd never seen McGruder cry before, and now she'd seen her cry several times in the one day.

"He's going to hate me; he couldn't even look at me," Yvonne cried.

"It's going to be fine, he's just a little bit shocked. I'm sure once he's processed everything that he'll be supportive." Kristine wasn't sure if that was true or not. "Have you ever seen him after an exam before? This is just like one of those times."

"I've never seen him after an exam before," Yvonne admitted.

"I'm surprised. It's usually the talk of the ship, I mean, in his most recent exam about six months ago he thought he was a fish for over twenty-four hours. His last lot of exams got cancelled when he went on bereavement leave," Kristine explained. "His brain goes into this weird shut down for some reason. I have no clue why. I don't think anyone ever tried to work him out. A bit sad when you think about it. I never saw him with anyone except for the captain or McIntyre, Todhunter, the medical staff and Lister in recent years. He lacks the most basic social skills. At one of the discos recently he picked up my purse and threw it because I was dancing in his way. I don't think he has any friends, or knows how to make friends." Kristine stopped talking. She was making things worse.

"That's so sad," Yvonne started to cry.

Rimmer turned up when Yvonne was still crying. He was still pale and looked terrified.

"Miss McGruder, I'm sorry," Rimmer apologised and started babbling away about how he didn't mean to make her cry and that he was a horrible person for fainting.

"I'm the one who should apologise," McGruder told him. "I should have told you when I found out, before I left the ship."

The three survivors of the Red Dwarf sat together awkwardly, not knowing what to say.


	5. Five

They had a long wait before they were actually able to go in for the hearing. John ended up joining Arnold, Yvonne and Kristine for a while before they went into the courtroom, wanting to make sure his brother was going to be alight. Instead all he managed to do was make Arnold feeling uneasy and even more nervous. When they were finally called in, John had to help Arnold to his feet.

"Deep breaths AJ and don't think about it." John reassured his brother. Helping him to a seat before joining Aaron and the other first responders.

The first thing that they'd gone through was the inquiry with each member of the first responder's team. Arnold Rimmer was relieved to know that he wouldn't be called up yet, he'd been worried that he'd be the first person the Admiral would speak to and at the moment he didn't think he'd be able to talk.

One by one the members of John's unit was called to talk about their part in responding to the accident. Arnold made sure to listen closely when they got up to his brother.

"Commander John Rimmer, Commander Aaron Carter; you two are the ones who made contact with the Red Dwarf?" Admiral Samuel Flinch asked the two men.

"Yes, sir," both men replied together.

"Can you tell me how you two were able to make contact with the ship when all other attempts had be unsuccessful?" Flinch enquired.

"When we'd been unsuccessful reaching them on the radio link, we attempted the phone link instead. I dialled the only number on the ship I knew, my brother's room number." John answered. Telling the story of how he'd made contact with Holly.

Rimmer was surprised to find that his brother knew his room number. Had it memorised even, despite the fact that he'd never received a phone call from his oldest brother or any of his blood related family for that matter. Before turning up to the funeral, he hadn't spoken with John since he was nineteen. It didn't make sense for John to know his number off the top of his head. He didn't even know that John knew where he worked.

 

Admiral Flinch finished up with the first responders and the Space Corps men and woman. The discussion turned to Dave Lister for a few hours before the conversation turned back to the three survivors of the Jupiter Mining Corporations - Red Dwarf.

"From our findings recorded to the black box and the records from the ship's computer, Holly, the ship suffered a Cadmium II Radiation Leak. This radiation leak escaped through a drive plate which was on the faults register for months before the accident happen. Second Technician Rimmer, can you explain why this drive plate wasn't repaired?"

Rimmer froze up at being addressed directly. Finding himself tongue-tied as he tried to respond. He didn't know what drive plate he was talking about.

"I don't know, Admiral Flinch." Rimmer managed to get himself to reply in an even tone.

"You don't know," the admiral taunted. "The ticket for the repair was listed next to your name, Second Technician Rimmer. You were the one assigned to fix the drive plate, and yet it wasn't repaired."

"That task should not have been-" Kristine started to defend the technician.

"I wasn't speaking with you, Console Officer Kochanski, I was speaking with Second Technician Rimmer," Admiral Flinch scolded. Kristine relaxed back into her seat, blank mask back in place so the admiral didn't know how upset she was.

"I am not aware of having any tickets to repair a drive plate," Rimmer replied. He was starting to get worried that they were going to pin the accident on him. That they were going to accuse him of sabotaging the plate before leaving the ship just because he didn't like anyone. His mind went into overdrive as he thought about the worst possible outcome.

"The ticket was assigned to you three days before the accident which killed the crew, at eight o'clock in the morning. You really don't know anything about this?" the admiral grilled him.

Rimmer was thinking of that day. "Three days before the accident I had routine maintenance on floor 232 and deck T. I had a maintenance request ticket for the vending machine in the drive room, the vending machines on floor sixteen and the one in the officer club on the recreation deck. I also had an extra ticket." Rimmer paled; he had received the ticket that Admiral Flinch was talking about. "The extra ticket was for repairing a drive plate on floor 1377 in corridor 149."

"Did you attempt to repair the drive plate?"

"No," Rimmer replied.

"Why wasn't the drive plate repaired?" the admiral asked him.

"I was placed on leave just after lunch the day I received the ticket."

"You were placed on leave, by who?" the admiral asked him.

"Captain Hollister."

"Why?"

"I'd found out that my father had died," Rimmer answered. Keeping answers short and to the point while his mind was still running on overdrive.

"And you didn't attempt to repair the drive plate afterwards or give your duties to anyone else? This was an important ticket."

"I was placed on leave. The officers in charge of the duties were aware of this fact. Any tickets I had that were deemed important should've been assigned to another person," Rimmer stated. "It's a part of the regulations. It was not up to me to assign my tickets to anyone else. That duty was McIntyre's before he passed away recently or Todhunter's who was filling in for him until McIntyre was replaced. If it was so important why was it assigned to me? I usually only did menial labour. The tickets that were allocated to me were generally overflow maintenance that the General Maintenance team couldn't handle, not things that could kill people," Rimmer snapped.

"We didn't ask you that, Second Technician Rimmer," Admiral Samuel Flinch stated.

"What does it matter anyway? You want a scapegoat," Rimmer stood up and shouted. "You need someone to pin this accident on. The JMC doesn't want to take the blame for the fact the officers weren't following maintenance procedures and that it had under qualified staff in high ranking positions. That vital funding that should have gone to the medical facilities, upgrades, new equipment and training was going to maintaining the officers' club and the captain's and officers' parties.

"Since the drive plate repair was assigned to me, you've decided that I'm going to be your scapegoat. That all blame for the deaths of everyone that I have worked with for most of my life lies with me. That no matter what I have to say I'm going to end up locked up in a prison somewhere, left to rot. You're going to throw every mistake I've ever made back at me and question my questionable mental stability and bring up every breakdown I have ever had and decide that I may just be crazy enough to sabotage the plate on purpose to kill them because I hated every single one of them.

"I may have hated them, but that is only because they hated me first and I certainly didn't want them to die. If I planned this don't you think I would take all my belongings with me and get as far away from the ship as possible? Everything I own is on that ship except for the small suitcase I took with me for my week's leave and a car which is in my parents' garage."

"That's enough. We weren't blaming you, Second Technician Rimmer, now sit down. That is enough questions for now. We will come back to you later," the admiral ordered Rimmer. He turned to make sure everything he just said had been recorded. The officer in charge of the minutes gave him a slight nod. That had given them even more of a direction to investigate.

John took a deep breath. This was just like Arnold, losing his temper at the wrong people. If he wasn't fainting, he was shouting at someone. He watched as Arnold sat back down, realising what he'd just done, that he'd just yelled at someone in a higher position that he would normally respect. For the third time that day Arnold Judas Rimmer fainted.

 

"I can't believe you are related to that wacko," Victor Bloom, one of the first responders from his team, said. "No wonder why you never talk about him. I would pretend to be an only child as well if I was related to someone like him."

"I never pretended to be an only child," John replied. "I'm the oldest child of four. Arnold and I have two other brothers between us."

"Are the other ones as nuts as he is?" Mathew Clinton asked him. One of his close friends.

"Frank is one of the fleet's captains. Howards is a technician under Healey," John told him.

"So he's the only one that's not in the Corps?" Victor asked. "I wouldn't want to be related to him. I mean he pretty much admitted to killing the crew."

"He didn't say that," Aaron replied. "He said that is what he thought the bigwigs were going to do to him. I don't blame him for his reaction, I mean they were already pointing towards him with the way they were questioning him."

"Did you see him faint, what type of person faints like that? What a loser," Mathew commented. John glared at him. "If I was related to someone like him I'd disown them, change my family name. You should do that, John, especially if they do pin this on him."

John continued glaring, he might have to reconsider his friendship with the man. "That is my brother you are talking about, and I will not be disowning him, even if my parents already have."

"Because of this trial?" Sally Petersen asked him. She was one of the few females in their unit.

"His father couldn't disown him because of the trial, he's dead. Rimmer's meant to still be on bereavement leave," Mathew pointed out. "Oh man, that was the leave your brother was on. Bereavement leave as well because of your father. No wonder why he wasn't thinking about what tasks he was doing. What type of person keeps working for an extra week like you did. Is he a workaholic like you are, John?"

John sighed, he really didn't want to be going through his family issues with his team. "He didn't know, he wasn't told until a few days beforehand. Our mother didn't want him at the funeral and causing a scene. Look, I don't want to be talking about my family."

"It's going to be dragged up you know," Aaron pointed out. "Your brother is right, they are going to be looking at everything since he has a direct link to the accident. That includes what your home life is like."

John sighed again. "Some things are just better left buried. With my father dead, I thought it was going to stay that way. I should check on Arnold, see if he's woken up yet."

He got up and left his friends. He had a headache, one he didn't think was going away any time soon. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. He didn't want his unit to find out how weak he was, to find out his father was a monster. Aaron already knew because he'd told him when he thought that Arnold was dead.

John noticed the two woman were still sitting with his brother. Arnold was awake, but he wasn't responsive.

"How is he?" John asked.

"No different than normal," Kristine replied. "He'll be fine by tomorrow. These types of episodes usually take it out of him."

She must have worked with him for a while to know how long it took his brother to recover. He took a seat, looking back over to Yvonne. He found it hard to believe that she was carrying his brother's child.

"Arnie J," John murmured. "How are you feeling?"

"I want to wake up," Rimmer replied, surprising Kristine. "I want this to be a horrible dream. I want to go home, but I can't because I will die instantly if I do. Back to my room with my side organised exactly how I like it. Yell at Lister because he hasn't packed up after himself, his bed isn't made, and his clothes are all over the floor and not folded up. He left toothpaste all over the sink, and now my room is going to be a mess for all eternity, and I can't go and clean it up. Do you think the Space Corps can contact Holly and get one of the scutters to straighten up my room so it's precisely the way I want it?"

John smiled and managed to laugh. He held out his hand and messed up his brother's hair. "I'm glad to see some things just don't change even with time."

Arnold went straight for his hair, trying to get it neat. His hair was all frizz with his curls and was harder to maintain than John's own straight hair.


	6. Six

The Red Dwarf enquiry had been dragging on for a couple of months. Rimmer had been surprised that he wasn't the only one who'd done some questionable things on board the ship. McGruder and Kochanski had their fair share of embarrassing incidents too.

The three Red Dwarf survivors were on a much needed lunch break.

"You really painted the Captain?" McGruder asked, referring to the incident which had been brought up that morning.

"Unfortunately."

"I didn't hear about that one. Why?" Yvonne asked.

"It was after you left the ship, three weeks before the accident. I thought Lister was being nice for once, he made me dinner. I thought he just wanted extra time off work or was going to ask for forgiveness for something he'd done that I didn't know about yet. Turned out he'd fed me Titan mushrooms for a laugh. I had a really bad reaction, ended up in the medi-bay. They had to pump my stomach and replace all my blood, and when I got back to my room I was still seeing things. My own head poking out of the table. Another me with an elegant moustache walking through the mirror. Two Listers and Kochanski standing in my doorway. They told me I'd be dead in three million years. Of course I would be dead, everyone would be dead in three million years." Rimmer paused his story for dramatic effect before continuing. "So when the captain came into my room, I thought he was part of the hallucination. Turns out he was dressed up for a fancy dress party I didn't know was happening."

Yvonne laughed along with the story. "Oh, Arnold, of all the people on the ship that could only happen to you. You have such terrible luck."

"About that, the hallucinations. The two hologram versions of yourself, the two older Lister's and myself, that really happened," Kockanski admitted. "It wasn't a hallucination."

"Excuse me?" Rimmer looked at the officer. "How can that be real? How did you know? I never mentioned the other me's were holograms."

 

_Kristine's moment of peace was destroyed as she heard someone banging on her door urgently. She'd just come off shift and had plans of meeting up with Tim later that evening. She briefly wondered if the computer system was down since messages were most commonly passed on by Holly. She made sure she was presentable before opening the door. The last thing she needed was to open the door to the captain with hair sticking out all over the place. Instead, standing in the doorway was a man she didn't know who looked very familiar to someone she knew._

_"Hey, are you Dave Lister's brother?" She asked the man. She didn't know anything about Lister except that he liked to mess with the controls of her chair and tease her whenever he came to the captain's office and that they both often frequented Parrots bar._

_"You are probably not going to believe me, but I am Dave Lister, from the future. Eight years older than the Dave Lister you know," Lister told her._

_"Really, Dave, may I ask how?" She asked him, playing along and not believing a word he said. Wondering how close this relative was to Dave._

_"I've got a hologram version of Rimmer with me if you don't believe me," Lister said, stepping aside._

_Rimmer stepped out from behind Lister. He was dressed in a suit and had a tiny moustache, which make him look very much like a butler._

_"Miss Kochanski, ma'am," he greeted her in a posh voice._

_She giggled. "You need to be like this more often, Rimmer. Is this your costume for tonight's party?" She knew that the uptight person that she'd worked with for several years would never be that relaxed and actually dress up in anything that wasn't Space Corps regulation or do funny voices unless he was mocking someone._

_"No, ma'am, this is not for the party," Rimmer replied with his special one of a kind salute._

_"So what are you time travellers doing?" Kristine continued to humour them both._

_Lister started the unbelievable story. "Well, five years ago for us we found a rift to the past in the bathroom on floor sixteen. A stasis booth was leaking and we were able to use the rift to travel back in time."_

_"Lister here needs you to pretend you're his wife," Rimmer jumped directly to the point._

_"What? Why?" Kristine asked._

_"Rimmer, do you always need to do that?" Lister turned to scold Rimmer. "He is right though. There's going to be a radiation leak three weeks from now, you need to be off the ship when it happens."_

_"What are you talking about?" Kristine asked them both._

_"I am going to go into stasis two days before the radiation leak happens for smuggling a cat on board," Lister explained. "You need to be off the ship after that happens."_

_"Alright," Kristine agreed. "So what is this about pretending to be your wife?"_

_"Well, I survive in stasis, right. Holly brings Rimmer back as a hologram to keep me sane since I was the only survivor. Five years ago, it was three years after the accident happened, not counting stasis time. I was madly in love with you. Knowing that in the future I was going to marry you was the only thing at the time that kept me going, gave me hope that I had something bright to look forward to."_

_Kristine nodded. "Alright, so you want me to pretend to be your wife for your younger self's mental sake. Why don't you think that we get married?"_

_"Well, I met another version of you from a different dimension," Lister said carefully._

_"And you're together now?" Kristine asked._

_"Oh no, it's better than that." Rimmer smirked. "She's his mother."_

_Kristine laughed. This story was getting even more ridiculous each passing moment._

_"Rimmer, what did I just say!" Lister once again scolded._

_"How?" Kristine asked in disbelief._

_"I was abandoned in a pub as a baby, it turned out that that version of you is my mother and I'm my own father. To keep the time streams in balance I had to abandon myself."_

_"So you slept with your mother?" Kristine asked him._

_"No, but it didn't stop him from trying," Rimmer smugly added._

_"Rimmer!" Lister scolded again. "I should've left you at home."_

_Confidently Rimmer replied, "Oh please, you wouldn't be able to fly the ship without me and you know it."_

_Lister grumbled in response before addressing Kristine once again._

_"We used an in-vitro tube. I was hoping the whole time that the baby wasn't me, but DNA tests proved that he was," Lister told her. "I do still like you, but considering our relationship even if it was with a different dimension's version of you, it would still make us related. Our family connection is why I want you to survive. I can't save everyone, but I can save you. If too many people leave the ship it would be noticed and change the time stream too much."_

_"Rimmer, why not try to save yourself?" Kristine asked. Rimmer was a selfish person and he only cared about himself._

_"I already did try to save myself last time, it just made everyone think I was crazy..er. Lister fed me Titan mushrooms and I just thought what was happening was a result of the mushrooms. So it didn't work and I still died anyway and at this stage I really don't want to meddle with the timeline. We've done that before with disastrous results and took a lot of effort to get it back to normal again."_

_"Alright, I'll help you. I'm interested to see how this plays out," Kristine said, inviting the two time travellers into her room to find out their plans._

 

"So that was real? I really did see two hologram versions of myself? That wasn't a hallucination?" Rimmer asked.

"Yes, it was, it's one of the reasons I came with you for your father's funeral. You tried so hard to save yourself and failed. So I helped and gave myself a legitimate excuse not to be on the ship. I helped you achieve what you failed on your own," Kristine told him.

"But if I'm here then I'll never be turned on as a hologram when Holly lets Lister out of stasis and then we'll never travel in time to the past together so then this will never happen so then I will die to be turned on as a hologram to..."

"We're still here, nothing has changed so just don't think about it." Kochanski put a comforting hand on Rimmer's knee to get him out of his loop.

"We can't mention any of this in the enquiry," McGruder stated. "They would never believe us."

Kochanski agreed, "I know, there's a lot that happened on the ship as it was that wouldn't be believed other than this time travelling incident. It was why I believed Lister and the other Rimmer."


	7. Seven

Yvonne shifted in her seat and moved Kristine and Arnold's attention to her. It had been a long day and they'd answered many questions about the Red Dwarf that were starting to be mighty repetitive.

"Are you alright Yvonne?" Arnold asked.

Yvonne and Kristine were both still getting used to this side of Arnold. Learning that he really did care about people other than himself. They'd just never seen it before since he didn't have anyone on the ship that he'd cared about before. In the past few months the two woman watching Arnold go into overdrive helping Yvonne prepare for the baby after the news had sunk in he was going to be a father and the past three weeks he'd been jumping at everything Yvonne did to help out, worried that it would cause her to go into labour. Arnold was driving everyone mad in a different way than normal. No one from the Red Dwarf would believe that the person in front of them was the same man from the ship.

"Like a whale, I just can't get comfortable." Yvonne shifted in her seat. "I want this baby out of me."

Kristine frowned noticing that Yvonne was more restless today then most days. She'd even been scolded in the court room for how restless she was. "You are past your due date, maybe we should head to the hospital and check your progress" she said, although she usually tried not to bring Yvonne's due date up since the last time she did Arnold had a panic attack.

John and his unit had been gone for weeks now leaving the three survivors in limbo. Arnold had moved into the same hotel room at the girls since the JMC refused to pay for another room and he wanted to be close to Yvonne to help with the baby.

The three of them had seen other crew members from recent years come in and give statements on the working conditions and the corruption on board the Red Dwarf as well as character statements about Arnold, Kristine and Yvonne. They were the only three that needed to stay for the whole enquiry, since they had the most questions to answer and were all current members of the crew.

"I don't need a hospital. I've had enough of doctors and nurses poking me. Only a few weeks before I left the ship, you could only just tell I was pregnant. Now look at me." Yvonne rubbed her stomach where the baby was currently moving. "I'd thought this baby would be out of me by now. Rimmer, do you know if your mother went past her due date with you?"

"I was born premature," Rimmer replied. "Father liked to mention how much it cost to keep me alive in my first few months of life."

"I was late so bub must get this from my side of the family," Yvonne told them. "Think I'll give birth during one of the interviews?"

Rimmer looked thoughtful before asking, "Are you sure you're not in labour? You've been more fidgety the past few days and I've seen you cleaning everything. That's called nesting; I read it in a few of the books."

"I think I'd know." Yvonne laughed it off. "I mean labour is meant to be really painful. I've had those fake contractions for months now. Those are annoying. I've had so many false alarms."

"Maybe you should go get them checked out again," Arnold suggested.

"Rimmer you're such a worrywart." Kristine rolled her eyes. "Yvonne will be fine. She will know when she is in labour and we will head to the hospital when it's time. The baby is going to be healthy and you are both going to be wonderful parents."

"You're the one who suggested the hospital first." Arnold reminded.

"It will probably spend the rest of its life with us while we keep getting questioned about the accident. I just want a fresh start, forget all about the Red Dwarf and do something else. It's hard to do that when we have to remain close by since they want to constantly talk to us. What happens if they do decide that I'm at fault?"

"I'm sure they are past that now considering they are investigating the corruption of the officers," Kristine said. "You don't have anything to worry about anymore. Yvonne and I are the ones that have to worry now since we are both officers."

 

It was the middle of the night when Yvonne finally went into labour. It didn't take long to wake Kristine and Arnold up, they'd both been prepared for exactly this happening for the last month.

Arnold started rambling about everything they needed to do. "We need a hospital, an ambulance! Hot water!"

"Just calm down, that is what you need to do," Kristine instructed. Once Arnold was calm and not on the verge of fainting or having an anxiety attack she gave him the next lot of instructions. "Go get dressed and then get her bag and let's go."

Arnold nodded, rushing into the bathroom to get changed and grabbing the bag which had been packed and ready for over a month. "What happens if we're called into an enquiry now or they won't let us leave?" Arnold asked, close to hyperventilating. He followed Kristine and helped Yvonne outside, making sure he had the bag with him.

"For starters it's the middle of the night. Tomorrow we tell them we can't go. It's as simple as that." Kristine had to reassure Rimmer, explaining why they couldn't press charges for failing to come in.

 

The baby didn't arrive right away. Yvonne had a long and slow and painful delivery. Arnold stayed by her side the whole time, while Kristine came and went as needed, usually spending a little bit of time trying to get Arnold to calm down whenever he got himself too worked up.

They did get called in for questions more than once, but only Kristine turned up to answer the enquiry's questions. Yvonne could not leave and Arnold was not going to miss the birth of his child for anything. Kristine didn't stay away long, wanting to support the two people who had become her closest friends over the past couple of months.

"Congratulations, you have a boy," the doctor told them when the screaming baby was finally delivered.

"He's healthy? Nothing wrong with him at all?" Arnold excitedly asked, looking at his newborn son, not believing that the infant was finally here, that this wasn't just a dream.

"Yes, Mr MrGruder, your son is healthy and so is your wife," the doctor said, handing over the baby. Arnold and Yvonne both didn't correct the man that he wasn't a McGruder or Yvonne's husband, fiancé or even boyfriend.

"We have a son." Arnold smiled sitting with Yvonne so they could both look at their baby. "I'm a father, I never thought that would happen. He's perfect, Yvonne. Look at those curls."

"He's our Michael." Yvonne smiled as she held her screaming son. She passed him to the nurse to cleaned him up. Arnold didn't care that his son was covered in gunk; he thought the baby was perfect.

 

"Arnie J, that kid of yours born yet?" John asked when he answered the video call. He'd been waiting for the call to confirm that he was an uncle for over two weeks now. So far every call had been about how the baby hadn't been born here yet and an update on the enquiry.

Arnold grinned on the other end, looking exhausted but pleased with himself. "A baby boy. Michael Raymond McGruder," his brother replied. The camera shifted to show the healthy baby boy in his mother's arms. John could understand why his brother had not given his son the Rimmer family name; he didn't want his own children to have the family name either if he could avoid it. Maybe if he ever got married he'd take his partner's last name too.

"Congratulations, Arnold, Yvonne. Michael's perfect. Glad that he's finally here. Now we just need this case behind you both so you can take him home."

"Thank you," Yvonne replied. She was tired but beaming

"They're not even giving Yvonne a chance to recover," his brother complained. "They want the three of us back there this afternoon. Said they'd given us plenty of time while Yvonne was in labour. They're all a bunch of smeg-headed twats."

John sighed. He knew what they were like. If the Space Corps and Jupiter Mining Corporation could have their way they'd have continued the enquiry in the labour ward. They didn't even really need the three of them any longer, they were just dragging things now.

"Try to get a bit of rest before they call you in. And enjoy that baby, they grow up fast. Before you know it they are thirty-two," John told them, looking at Arnold. He felt old thinking about his kid brother's age. He'd been a teenager when his parents had Arnold. Here his little brother was in his early thirties.

 

Being new parents and living out of a hotel room provided by the JMC was not ideal. They had to make do since the JMC would not pay for anything else and they weren't willing to rent a house or flat when they didn't know how long they'd be on the large moon.

The JMC had ordered a DNA test of the baby after he'd been born. They wanted proof that Arnold wasn't covering up for someone else on the ship. Their relationship wasn't one that needed approval since they worked with different streams and would not affect each other's promotion prospects with a relationship, but if Yvonne had been having a relationship with a junior or senior member of her own crew or steam that would have caused issues. Arnold had been so relieved when it came back that Michael was his. He didn't have any doubt that Michael was his son until the paternity test was ordered.

They had to answer questions about every relationship they'd had while working on the ship. Arnold's was easy: he'd has a one night stand with Yvonne and dated two other women who no longer worked for the JMC and never had sexual relations with the other woman. His relationships had all been documented in his personnel file. One thing the JMC liked about Arnold was the fact that he had recorded everything in his own personal diary as well as reporting everything that he thought was inappropriate or outside of the regulations. He'd even reported his one night stand with Yvonne. They did have a lot to go through with all the complaints that he'd made about Dave Lister over the most recent years and the previous members of Z crew. Some of the things he'd reported were ridiculous.

"Why have you reported even small infractions?" One of the lawyers asked him. Arnold had lost track of who everyone was and who was who. They'd changed so much over the past couple of months.

"Well, I started reporting only the bigger issues," Arnold sighed, they'd already covered this. "I found that they were not being taken seriously if I had not reported the smaller incidences that happened leading up to the bigger one. It just got to the point that I reported everything that was out of line, big or small because nothing was being taken seriously."

 

The trial was finally over. Everyone who'd been called in from the Red Dwarf had been found to not be the cause of the accident that had ended the lives of the crew. Kristine, Yvonne and Arnold had all received payouts from the Jupiter Mining Corporation as well as the families of the crew who'd been found innocent of having anything to do with the corruption.

"What are we going to do now?" Arnold asked the two woman.

"I've been offered a job with one of the science departments within the JMC," Kristine informed her friends. "I'm going to take it."

"I was offered work as well," Yvonne said. "I don't think I'm going to take the position. I'm going to go on the rest of my maternity leave and decide what I'm going to do from there, whether that is being a stay at home mother or going back to work elsewhere. Maybe I'll return to the JMC in another position."

"What are you going to do?" Kristine asked Arnold.

"I don't know. I wasn't offered a job for obvious reasons." Arnold sighed. "I've been told to get my mental health in order first. I just don't know that I'm good at anything else. Working on the Red Dwarf has been the only thing I know, I have nothing to fall back on. I didn't have a backup plan. I was horrible at my job so I'm not even going to be able to get work doing what I was already doing elsewhere."

"Well, for now, you can come back with me and help out with Michael," Yvonne offered. "It's not like we have to work, look at how much money we got from the payout. We're rich. Michael would miss you if you didn't come."

"Is that really considered rich?" Arnold asked. "On Io, that's pocket change. I have more than that in my savings from when I divorced my parents. I still receive monthly payments from them and don't touch that money."

"Are you serious?" Kristine asked. "My family is very well off and not even I have as much money as we have all received from the payout."

"I've always been very frugal with my money. My only large purchase has been my car. I like my cars, never got to enjoy them being in space. I do want to continue being involved in Michael's life, but are you sure I won't be imposing? I don't think your father likes me very much."

"Daddy sees you as weak, and he doesn't like weak men. Don't worry about him, we'll get our own house. Money is not an issue at the moment and if I do go back to work and you don't you can watch Michael for me. Come back to Earth with me. Kris, you can come as well. I don't think I can manage without you and Michael will miss his aunt Krissy," Yvonne requested.

"Sure, I need a holiday after everything we've been through. I already told the JMC that I needed to recover from the enquiry before I started working." Kristine agreed. "We owe you our life, Arnold, both of us. You gave me a legitimate excuse to leave the ship and if Yvonne wasn't pregnant with your child she would also be dead right now."

"Kristine, my father and Janine are the ones that we both need to thank. If Father hadn't died and if Janine hadn't called me to invite me to the funeral we wouldn't be here." Arnold reminded Kristine what started everything.

 

John was glad that Arnold's trial was finally over. He'd finally be able to discover who he really was and leave the past behind him. He didn't need to live in their parent's shadow or stay in a stagnant job because it was all he knew.

"When will Arnold be coming home?" His mother asked. "Isn't his trial over now?"

"Yes, it's over and has been for three weeks. Arnold won't be coming back to Io, he's moved to Earth."

"What is he going to do with himself?" Mother asked, assuming the worst from her youngest. "You know how hopeless he is. Maybe we'll be able to find a nice girl for him to marry. Someone who will take him despite all his problems and support him financially."

"He doesn't need financial support, Mother. He received a payout from the JMC. If he's sensible with his money he will be fine for the rest of his life whether he works or not and money is one thing Arnold has always been sensible with," John reminded his mother. Arnold and Frank were the only two that were sensible with money.

"Getting married is not as wonderful as everyone makes it out to be," Howard commented. His wife Karen had left him in the past few months, unable to get past the skeletons in the Rimmer family closet which had spilt out into the open the day Arnold had turned up for their father's funeral. He had limited access to his daughter as a result of the divorce. "If Arnold's smart he'll never have children."

"I hope that Arnold never does has children. There is something wrong with that boy and I don't want another generation having whatever problems he has," their mother complained.

"Mother, Arnold has a son named Michael," Frank informed their mother.

John looked at his brother surprised. "I didn't know you knew about Michael."

"I'm high enough up the ranks to hear what was going on with that enquiry. There was a betting pool for when the kid would be born and what the paternity results would be. Janine's been giving him parenting advice. We haven't seen the kid yet, but he looks just like Arnold from his photos," Frank said, just as surprised that John knew. "I didn't know that you knew."

"I was a first responder so I was in those very early trails when Yvonne's pregnancy was still new to Arnold. I've seen him a few times when I've been called back for further information. Going to be a bit harder with them on Earth to see them. Arnold called me when Michael was born, you should have seen how proud Arnold was. First time I've ever thought of him as an adult and not a kid."

Mother complained. "Why didn't he tell me? I'm his mother. I have a right to know that I have another grandchild. Please tell me he did the right thing and married the girl."

"They're not together as a couple, Mother," John told her, a smirk on his face because he knew his mother's interfering wouldn't change anything. "They're not going to get married to one another just because they have a son together. Maybe he didn't tell you because he knew you'd demand that he married her."

"Not to mention you haven't told him anything over the past few years. You didn't even tell him that Father was dead," Frank added.

"I did so," Mother insisted.

Howard suggested, "Maybe he sent you a letter to let you know that you're a grandmother."


	8. Epilogue

Holly looked through the database of everyone who'd worked on the Red Dwarf. There were only two people who would keep Lister sane. Kristine Kochanski, the girl he'd pined over the whole time he'd worked on the ship, but never had the courage to ask out. That was problematic due to Lister's libido. Or Arnold Rimmer, his bunkmate and shift leader, which was problematic due to Lister driving Rimmer insane. Both had their drawbacks. He also had another issue with his plan: neither had died on the Red Dwarf. Though they were both now long dead, three million years long dead, so it wasn't illegal to bring either of them back since they were both technically dead.

Holly had kept tabs on Rimmer and Kochanski since they'd been the sole survivors of the accident having left the ship only hours before. He didn't count McGuder since she'd been off the ship for a few weeks. Rimmer and Kochanski had bonded over losing everyone they knew during the trial with the JMC and Space Corps which had dragged on for months. After a few years they married and had twin girls Jasmine and Rebecca. Rimmer and McGruder's son Michael lived with the Rimmers full time, it had turned out Rimmer was more the paternal type than the two woman who'd been in his life and became a stay at home father, homeschooling his three children which came as a surprise to anyone who knew Arnold Judas Rimmer considering how poorly he did at school. He even released a successful line of children's books he'd wrote and illustrated himself for his children and ended up voice acting for a cartoon adaptation after a casting director]had seen an interview where he'd read for his children and liked his impersonations.

McGruder had continued in her career this time with the Space Corps instead of the JMC and eventually got married. She hadn't had any more children and had kept in regular contact with Michael while in space, visiting whenever she was on leave. Kochanski continued working for the JMC, eventually moving into the science field, but she always made sure she was based somewhere she could bring her family, with no more space expeditions. Considering she was a survivor of the Red Dwarf the JMC never questioned her about not wanting to be on a ship long term.

If he could, Holly would bring them both back. It would be interesting to see if those two would end up together with Dave Lister in the mix. Alas, Holly could only choose one. He couldn't decide which one so had one of the scutters flip a coin. "Heads for Rimmer since he was always a smeghead, tails for Kochanski." He watched as a coin toss decided who would be the new hologram. The scutter dropped the coin and it landed on heads.

"Rimmer it is." Holly smiled. He'd always had a soft spot for the neurotic twat.

"Best two out of three," the scutter beeped at him in binary. It was upset at the prospect of working with Rimmer again, despite the fact the service robots all outranked Rimmer and Lister.

Holly went and modified Rimmer's memories; it would do no good if he remembered leaving the ship with Kochanski to go to his father's funeral. He also removed all memory of finding out his father was dead. Lister was going to need a little mind patch as well since he knew Rimmer's father was dead. It wouldn't do to have him blabbing to Rimmer. The final touch was altering the video feed so he had footage of Rimmer, Kochanski and McGruder dying. It would not do Rimmer any good to find out about Michael. He might go digging and find out that he'd died of old age surrounded by his adoring family and not on the Red Dwarf with the rest of the crew. That would do no good for the hologram's mental health.

Holly turned the hologram on, loaded the personality disc and watched as Rimmer finished booting.

"What happened? Why was I blasted across the drive room? What was that flash of light?" Rimmer asked in confusion, feeling his body, checking everything was intact.

It was probably a little mean giving Rimmer a death that didn't actually happen; holograms were not meant to remember how they died. Oh well, a bit late for that now.

"You're dead, Arnold, everybody is dead, except Lister who is currently in stasis," Holly informed the newly booted hologram.


End file.
